Meeting the Wilder family

 We made friends with another transplanted Coos County family, George and Emily Wilder and their two girls.  We attended the same church and often had Sunday dinner afterward.  Christy and Linda, brother-less until their tweens, loved the boisterous company of my brothers, their very boy-ness intriguing.  Michael excelled at organizing obstacle courses and us.  He’d race off in the lead setting the course while the pack followed.  We’d dash around the back field, scale the rock wall to vault onto the tire swing for a fast spin, drop off into cushiony ivy beds, onward to the next challenge.  

 

The two sets of parents took dance lessons together, round and square dance, (Mom sewed square dance dresses for her with matching shirts for Dad.)  They held dance parties at our house, pushing furniture against the walls and sprinkling powder on the floors for a better dance surface. The adults whirled away in abandon downstairs while upstairs we kids enjoyed a bit of freedom.  We discovered a new obstacle course, access through my bedroom closet into the skeleton of the house.  We’d walk the rafters, lit candles in hand (flashlight batteries being in short supply) and end up in the boys’ bedroom closet. 

 

We’d play “Hide and Seek” at night, the grounds offering a myriad of hiding places in the darkness.  

I’d stealthily search for the optimum hiding spot while the “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, ready or not here I come” countdown ticked away, my anticipation rising as the hunt began.  I’d sneak silently toward “home-free” holding my breath to locate the whereabouts of the vigilant  “It”, who if Michael was likely at my heels ready to pounce upon me screaming  a victorious “you’re it”.  It was a thrilling and heart thudding dash up the porch steps to “home free” at the front door.   

 

We were great friends with Christy and Linda.  We five caught the roller rink bus from our house and skated away winter days in a blur of “Hokey Pokey”, speed skating, and plenty of spills.  We’d be dropped off at The Fox or The MacDonald theatres for innocuous Disney flicks, with an extra dime for a Charm sucker.  Sometimes we’d get a free one from an enclosed coupon.  We saw the classics of the time, ‘Babes in Toyland”, “The Parent Trap”, “Sword in the Stone”, “In Search of the Castaways.” I was in for a surprise when we happened into a bizarre movie about sending dead pets off into orbit in space.  A memorable scene depicted a grossly obese woman pulling a roasted piglet from a refrigerator with such force that it toppled over on her.  She lay there trapped, yet greedily eating great chunks of meat, face dripping with pig grease and sweat.  It was an unsettling movie.

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